Now over his last 15 games he's 8 for 56, 0 Home Runs, 4 RBI's and 27 K's.Yes, he has a .340 OBP over that time, but his slugging average is less than .200 and his OPS is in .500's. Is that acceptable for someone who is supposed to supply power? No.

And if someone is striking out 50% of the time, you'd expect a home run or two.

Nobody is claiming he is not struggling. The question is whether a 15 game sample size is a sign of a slump soon to be over or something deeper and more permanent.

If he hadn't been such a steaky hitter in his past, I'd be more worried it might be something more permanent. It may be it, but I'm thinking the chances are it is just a bad and long slump. Napoli is 31, soon to be 32, so his best years are probably behind him, but 31 is not the usual age a player loses it, and certainly not common to lose it all so quickly.

A look back at Napoli's career shows a rollercoaster career. His BA has gone like this year-by-year: .228> .247>.273>.272>.238>.320>.227>.249. His SLG% had gone from a low of .437 (this year) and .443 in 2007 to .631 in 2011 and .586 in 2008- all over the map. His OBP has been the most consistent of the major stats. His low was .316 in 2010. His high was .414 in 2011, but the rest of his seasons have been ebtween .341 and .374. Pretty steady.

In 2012, Naps hit 24 HRs in just 352 ABs. His OPS was .812, which is only about 25 points higher than it is this year. He had this bad streak:

July: 77 PAs .183 BA

Aug: 22 PAs .167 BA

He was not benched in September and had a 1.051 OPS and 7 HRs in 51 ABs.

In 2011, his best season in MLB, he batted .320, but my guess is some of you would have wanted him platooned or benched after this stretch:

May .206 BA (.764 OPS) in 75 PAs

June .179 BA (.448 OPS) in 30 PAs

1st half: .232 BA

He was not benched, and went on to have a 1.171 OPS for the second half with 18 HRs in just 249 PAs

In April of 2010, Naps had a .514 OPS and a .167 BA in 50 PAs, but he followed this up with a May of .322/.385/.713/1.098 and 8 HRs in 96 PAs.

In 2009, his OPS yo-yo'd all year:

Apr 1.009

May .766

Jun 1.002

Jul .919

Aug .696

Sep .731

In 2008, maybe some of you would have wanted him benched after a long stretch like this:

May 20th to July 5th:

19 games/65 PAs

.109 BA (55 ABs 6 Hits 2 HRs 6 RBI)

He followed this up with a 1.002 OPS in August and 1.414 OPS in Sep.

I'm not promising anything or trying to prject a rebound by Napoli, but his career shows he often follws up cold streaks with hot ones.